Elephants on the Street

One thing we've been amazed at is the number of opportunities for people to work in China. Whether you're in business or want to work with children there's a place you can work. Something to think about, especially now with the Olympics happening. People from all around the world are coming to work all over the country.

A visit to a restaurant last night was interesting, to say the least. We couldn't decide between the cow stomach or the fish stomach so settled for sweet and sour chicken instead. The lemon juice sounded wonderful, it was ... sort of. Cold, wet and salty, very salty so we chose not to drink it.

As we walked later in the evening we were surprised by an elephant walking along the street carrying his master on his back. Since it was night time the elephant had one of those little red flashing lights you see on the back of bicycles attached to his tail flashing away.

Meeting a young girl, with a fine Dutch name,who lives about 15 miles away from our home in Zeeland was also a special time. We had lunch with her and enjoyed talking about home.

Dead battery on the camera makes it a bit difficult to take pictures. Hopefully we'll be posting some pictures next week, or the next, or the next ...

Chaing Mai

After a delayed flight in Chengdu, a night (very short) in a hotel in Bangkok, we finally made it to Chaing Mai for the Family Conference. Kathy calls it the "Land of Warm Feet" because at last our feet are warm. When we get back to Chengdu one of the first things we'll purchase is a small heater to put by our feet when we are home and at work. Hopefully the cold weather will break soon. I just read in an information sheet that spring comes early to Chengdu, tomorrow would be about right for us.

We ate a Thailand Mall food court today. Very interesting. From the Amazing Fish Plate to Fried Rice with Barracuda, from things that we didn't recognize to things that we wouldn't want to eat, it was unique. Not as interesting as the food bazaar outside our hotel last night. The most interesting table of food consisted of plates of deep fried cockroaches, grasshoppers, bees, grubs, beetles and small scorpions. We also passed on that.

Chengdu Chill

We've spent two nights here and it's been cold. It's snowing for the first time in three years. The heating unit in the apartment where we are guests is definitely not up to the task. We're glad we heeded advice and brought long underwear. Hopefully it will warm up soon.
We'll probably be struggling with jetlag for a couple more days. The 13 hour time difference hasn't been easy to adjust to.
It looks like we'll be getting an apartment in the downtown area. The area is a few miles from the office where we will be working. Near where we will settle in is a French store, Carrefour, that is similar to a Walmart with Chinese influence. We spent some time there last night just to warm up. We were pleased to find a wide variety of foods that we enjoy as well as most of the items we'll need when we get our own apartment.
A highpoint of the morning was seeing and talking to our family in Michigan over the internet. We're amazed at how well this web communication works.
Right now we're on our way to a conference in Thailand. At least we're in the airport waiting for a flight that's been delayed two hours. We've informed we will most likely miss our connecting flight in Bangkok and have been assured that if we do we will be provided with a room in a 5-star hote for the night ... we'll see.

Departure Day

It's finally here, the day we've been anticipating for several months. We're pretty much packed, we've weighed the bags, and we're finishing up all of the last minute details. We're leaving Grand Rapids at 3:35 P.M. (Monday) and will be arriving in China on Wednesday at 1:30 A.M. (1:30 P.M. China time).

Just looked at the weather in Chengdu, 32-45 degrees for the next couple of weeks with some snow predicted. Not exactly what we were hoping for, but, we'll do fine, especially since it's been so much colder in Michigan the last couple of days.

We'll post again when we get a chance.

Preparations

There are so many details to take care of, sometimes it's overwhelming. Today, January 8, we began making arrangements to stop various services such as telephone, cable, etc. People we talked to were very helpful, in some cases a bit too helpful. The phone company assured us that they would cancel our phone service, as directed, on January 22. Ten minutes later our phone went dead. Reaching customer service on the cellphone, (press #1 to pay bills; press #2 for repairs; press #3 for inquiries; press #4 to listen to music and advertisements while you wait for what seems eternity to talk to a real person who will probably connect you to someone else), anyhow, we did reach customer service and were told they had already realized their mistake and would fix it, however it would take a couple of hours. Four hours later and we're still waiting.